


swollen summer.

by katarama



Series: Tumblr Ficlets [3]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-30
Updated: 2015-08-30
Packaged: 2018-04-18 01:15:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,793
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4686749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katarama/pseuds/katarama
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Spring is supposed to be a season of transition, but summer ends up being the most important season of all, the season of change.</p>
            </blockquote>





	swollen summer.

Winter is when Scott first thinks of Lydia as more than Stiles’ childhood crush.  When he makes first line, she notices him, and within weeks Scott has the taste of Lydia’s lips on his mouth, the feel of her body pressed up against his, her hands tugging at his hair.  It isn’t expected, and Scott never would’ve asked for it, but when it happens, he kisses back.  She looks satisfied when she leaves the room.  Scott isn’t sure why she did it, whether it’s a power play or a way to get what she wants or a way to make Jackson jealous.  All he knows is that he feels her eyes on him every time he walks onto the lacrosse field, appraising and expectant.  

He wants to make her pleased with him, to make her smile.  He wonders if this is how Jackson feels all the time.  When Jackson starts cornering him about how he got so good so quickly, emphatic and desperate, Scott decides that maybe Jackson was always that way, and Lydia just never discouraged it.  

Still, it gets Scott looking at Lydia enough that even Stiles notices.

Spring is when the pieces start coming together.  Lydia tells Jackson she still loves him, and it saves him.  Stiles starts to resign himself to giving up his fuzzy, faded dreams of dating Lydia, maybe even marrying her someday.  Scott has mixed feelings.  On the one hand, he was never pining as desperately as Stiles.  He’s run over the kiss more times in his head than he cares to admit, not that he actually has anyone to admit it to.  Allison, maybe.  She and Scott are slowly making their way back to being friends.  But as much as he’s thought about Lydia, he’s never seen him and her as a real possibility.

He doesn’t even really understand her.  He knows that Stiles has some things right; the entire school knows she’s been burying her intelligence unsuccessfully.  That information isn’t unique to Stiles.  Scott knows that Lydia cares very much about how other people perceive her, and that she likes to be perfectly in control.  She can be mean and she can be flippant with regards to other people’s feelings.

But Scott doesn’t believe for one second that’s all there is to her.  He’s not running around like Stiles, claiming he understands Lydia because he keeps his eyes open.  But Scott can’t believe that Lydia is really that shallow.  Not when he saw her out there on the field, wrapping her arms around Jackson.  

Spring dragged Lydia through the mud.  She was vulnerable and excluded and isolated.  She was helpless and used.  But she picks herself up again and carries herself forward, stronger and more human than before.

So Scott doesn’t think he’ll end up with Lydia.  He thinks that she and Jackson will grow into each other.  They’ve both changed since when Jackson dumped her in the hallway.  

When Stiles prepares to throw in the towel, though, Scott hesitates.  There’s still a tiny spark of something there for Scott, something stronger than what was there before.  Scott doesn’t know what it is; it’s more than curiosity but less than need, and it’s not enough to act on when Lydia is happy and settled.  But it’s still there and flickering.  

Spring is supposed to be a season of transition, but summer ends up being the most important season of all, the season of change.

 

* * *

 

Jackson and Lydia break up.

It isn’t mutual.  Jackson needs to get out of Beacon Hills, so he severs ties with everyone and everything, including Lydia.  He’s gone from the country before Lydia has time to talk him out of it, and Allison is out of town for the summer, leaving Lydia alone all over again.  She’s hurt and tired and she lashes out, because just when she had things settled, she’s back where she started.

Scott’s surprised when she shows up at his house, looking flawless and miserable.  Scott’s mom lets her in, shooting Scott confused looks, and Scott brings her up to his bedroom.  She sits down on his bed, her hands smoothing the fabric of her short sundress.  

“Well?” she asks when Scott waits too long to do anything.  He’s still trying to catch up with the fact that Lydia came to him.  Everyone knows about her and Jackson; Jackson made the breakup facebook official and it had spread like wildfire.  Stiles had called Scott when he saw it to celebrate.  “Are you going to say anything?”  

“Are you okay?” Scott asks, finally, sitting down next to her.  

“Yes,” Lydia says, a tad sharply.  It only makes Scott more worried.  “He’s just a boy,” Lydia tries again.  “The world is full of them, and the fact that everyone’s only concerned with my emotional well being when I don’t have a boy in my life is absurd.”

“I don’t-  that’s not really what I meant, though I think that it’s okay to be a bit off your game emotionally when you break up, especially when you love them as much as you love Jackson.  I was with Allison, and we’d barely been dating for a few weeks.  I’m pretty sure Stiles wanted to punch me in the face, actually, because I couldn’t stop thinking about-” Lydia gives Scott a flat look.  “Okay, right.  I don’t really want to hear about Jackson,” Scott admits.  “If you don’t want to talk about him or breaking up with him, I’m good with that.  If you do, I’m not going to stop you.  But I’m worried because you just showed up at my house on a Friday night unannounced.  That’s not something you do.”

“I don’t want to talk about Jackson,” Lydia says.  “Or get pep talks based on you and Allison.”

“Okay,” Scott says.  “What do you want, then?  Why are you here?”

Lydia purses her lips and folds her hands in her lap.  She takes her time giving an answer; Scott suspects that she doesn’t really have one.  Or, at least, any answer better than ‘I had nowhere else to go’.

“You’re more popular than you think,” Lydia says.  It’s not a real answer, though Scott knows what she’s getting at.  Hanging out with Scott won’t damage her reputation, though it doesn’t matter much either way.  It’s summer, so unless Lydia plans on taking Scott along to the movies or the mall or something, no one’s gonna see her coming over to Scott’s.  

“I’m no Jackson.”

“I know,” Lydia says, giving Scott a once-over before finally settling her gaze on his warm, brown eyes.  “That’s why I’m here.”

She doesn’t explain any more than that, and Scott doesn’t press.  They put on a movie on Scott’s computer, sitting next to each other in comfortable silence.  They don’t really talk much; Scott only talks through movies when Stiles is around.  But Scott feels like he must’ve done something right, because when Lydia gets up to leave, she graces him with a warm smile and a thank you.

 

* * *

 

It turns out that Scott being popular enough does matter, because within the next month, Scott has gained Lydia’s phone number and has been invited to the movies and to lunch a few times.  Lydia turns heads as she charges her way through the mall.  Scott trails behind her, but she’s obviously starting to warm up to him.  She’s softer around him than the entire last year put together. 

She invites him to go swimming at her house with her, and he accepts.  She’s wearing a navy blue bikini with white polka dots when he leaves his bike and heads through the gate behind her house to the pool.  She’s sitting on the side of the pool sipping on something neon red in a tall glass, and she smiles when she sees Scott.

“You’re not going to swim in  _that_ , are you?” she asks, glancing at his t-shirt and khaki shorts.  Scott gestures to his backpack.  “Is there somewhere I can change?”

“Bathroom’s the first door on the left.  Can you grab some sunscreen while you’re in there?”

Scott navigates his way to the pristine bathroom, closing the door and quickly changing into his trunks.  He grabs the sunscreen and hands it off to Lydia.  

He shouldn’t be surprised when she hands it right back to him and asks him to get her back, but he is.  She sets her drink down and gets out of the pool so he has easier access.  He winces as the bottle splats sunscreen onto her back, but he spreads it in, trying to focus on making sure every inch of her back is covered and not on the fact that his hands are on Lydia.  When he finally finishes, he hands it back, and she looks him over.

“Let me put some on you, too,” Lydia says.  Scott is flustered, but he agrees, and Lydia takes ages slathering sunscreen on his back, almost pressing flat against him when her hands move up to his neck and shoulders.  Scott shivers, and her hands still, lingering on his shoulder blades.

Scott expects that she’ll hand over the bottle and he’ll take care of the rest, but she slides around to his front, coating her hands in sunscreen and starting at the skin above the top of his trunks.  As slowly as she moved with his back, she moves even more slowly there, and Scott knows it isn’t unintentional.  She’s looking straight into his eyes as her hands roam, and as squirmy and hot as Scott feels, her gaze pins him to the spot.

When Lydia’s hand moves towards his cheek, Scott knows where this is going.  He feels greasy and gross from the sunscreen sinking into his skin, but when she presses up to wrap her hand in his hair and pull him close, he leans in and kisses her.  Her lips taste like Hawaiian Punch and cherry chapstick, but the kiss is just as nice as the first time, maybe even better, because this time, he expected it.

Lydia pulls away, finally, smile softer than Scott has ever seen it.  He’s so warm just looking at her that he’s caught completely by surprise when she reaches up her hand and smears sunscreen all over his nose.

“Time to swim,” she says, reaching for Scott’s hand and leading him back to the edge of the pool.

 

* * *

 

Once Stiles finally forgives Scott, everything slots into place.  It’s a summer full of kissing and taking naps in the sun and splashing each other in the pool.  

Summer fades into fall, but Scott’s feelings only grow.  He walks in on the first day of school with a smile on his face and Lydia’s hand in his, ready to take on his classes.

**Author's Note:**

> On tumblr [here](sleepy-skittles.tumblr.com).


End file.
